Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a urethral catheter with an anti-infection structure for infants which is used for infants having a narrower urethral canal than adults and, more particularly, to a urethral catheter with an anti-infection structure for infants in which, in order to prevent contamination generated when a hose is combined with a main pipe after insertion of the catheter into the urethra of patient, a reinforcement rod is inserted into and released from a reinforcement rod inflow and outflow pipe separately formed at a side of the main pipe under the condition that the hose is combined with the main pipe in advance so as to prevent urine from leaking during combination of the hose with the main pipe and to provide ease in insertion of the flexible urethral catheter for infants into the urethra.
Description of the Related Art
As is well known, catheters are flexible fine pipes which are inserted into veins, the urethra and the chest. Here, a urethral catheter is inserted into the urethra of a patient and executes a function of discharging patient's urine.
A conventional urethral catheter for infants 2, as exemplarily shown in FIG. 1, is inserted into the urethra of a patient with reduced mobility, guides and discharges patient's urine to an the urine storage bag 20, and includes a flexible fine pipe, i.e., a urethral insertion pipe 4 configured to be inserted into the urethra and a balloon 40 formed at a designated part of the front end of the urethral insertion pipe 4 to maintain a through hole 6 and the front end of the urethral insertion pipe 4 within the bladder so that urine may be introduced into the urethral insertion pipe 4.
A Y-shaped connection pipe 8 is provided at the lower end of the urethral insertion pipe 4 so as to communicate with the urethral insertion pipe 4. The Y-shaped connection pipe 8 includes a main pipe 10 and a branch pipe 16, the branch pipe 16 may be provided with a connection terminal 18 formed at the end thereof and combined with a water injector (or a balloon expander) to expand the balloon 40 formed at the front end of the urethral injection pipe 4, the main pipe 10 is provided with an insertion hole 12 with which a coupling front end 28 of a hose 22 connected to the urine storage bag 20 is coupled, and a projection 14 is formed on the inner circumferential surface of the insertion hole 12.
The urine storage bag 20 is a synthetic resin bag provided with an inlet and an outlet and serving to store urine discharged from the patient's urethra, and includes a discharge pipe 24 formed at the outlet, an opening/closing intermitting member 26 to intermit opening/closing of the hose 22 connected to the inlet, and a separate connector and a cap 30 combined with the coupling front end 28 of the hose 22 to prevent contamination.
Although the urethral insertion pipe 4 is inserted into the urethra of the patient, since the patient is an infant and has a narrow urethral canal, the urethral insertion pipe 4 needs to be flexible and causes a difficulty in insertion into the urethra of the patient. Therefore, in order to increase rigidity of the urethral insertion pipe 4 to easily insert the urethral insertion pipe 4 into the urethra of the patient, after the urethral insertion pipe 4 is inserted into the urethra of the patient under the condition that a reinforcement rod 32 is inserted into the urethral insertion pipe 4 through the insertion hole 12 of the main pipe 10, the reinforcement rod 32 is released from the urethral insertion pipe 4 and, then, the coupling front end 28 of the hose 22 is combined with the insertion hole 12 to communicate the urethral insertion pipe 4 with the urine storage bag 20.
However, in the conventional urethral catheter for infants 2, during a process of inserting the urethral insertion pipe 4 into the urethra of the patient, releasing the reinforcement rod 32 from the urethral insertion pipe 4 and then combining the coupling front end 28 of the hose 22 with the insertion hole 12, the patient may be exposed to the risk of contamination and infected with germs. Since the conventional urethral catheter for infants 2 requires the reinforcement rod 32, the separately provided hose should be combined with the catheter despite the rise of infection.